All posts tagged Wendy Bryant
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
Disability haters: It could never happen here, right?
England is seeing a rise in nastiness toward disabled persons.
Gillian turns over in bed after a restless night with little sleep. She will have to accept that today is going to be one of those days when she will hardly move. Maybe sit up later, and phone Mum to see how Dad is today.Gillian lives with a long-term disabling condition which means that her mobility is restricted and variable; she has very little strength in her limbs, and she lives with constant pain. On a good day she can walk down the stairs from her first floor flat to her mobility scooter, which she has to store in the hallway; on bad days she is unable to leave her flat, or even get out of bed. She depends on her scooter to remain independent, to get out and about, and to help her mother to care for her father, who has dementia. A well-qualified and experienced nurse, Gillian would love to be able to work, but she knows that it is out of the question.Two days ago she struggled downstairs to find a note stuck on her scooter with the one word “scrounger”.
It gets worse.
While the charities speaking out – Scope, Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability, the National Autistic Society, RNIB, and Disability Alliance – say inflammatory media coverage has played a role in this, they primarily blame ministers and civil servants for repeatedly highlighting the supposed mass abuse of the disability benefits system, much of which is unfounded.At the same time, they say, the focus on “fairness for taxpayers” has fostered the notion that disabled people are a separate group who don’t contribute; whereas of course many people with disabilities are in employment, and thus contributing to the tax and benefit system.Scope’s regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts, up from 41% four months before. In the last poll almost half said attitudes towards them had deteriorated in the past year.
Yeah, you really read that. People who live in chronic pain, people who need mobility devices to do things we take for granted, people who are homebound and unable to hold a job, people who are already victims of illness or accident or inherited condition — these “least among us” are being further victimized to score political points.
It makes me want to vomit. And maybe slap somebody with my nunly ruler.
May God have mercy on us all.
